Lieutenant Commander Gabriel “Angel” Brown had waited four-point-six-hundredths of a second too long to act effectively. At a hundred and thirty-five nautical miles an hour, a hundred and fifty-five mph, his actions started ten feet, seven inches too late.
The F-35C Lightning II could accelerate while climbing straight up, especially when as light on fuel as Number 892 was. But not this time.
Because LC Brown had raised the nose to a high angle of attack in his attempt to return to flight, the retracting tailhook was tipped down enough to snag the fourth wire with three inches to spare.
The inch-and-a-quarter-diameter arresting cable had a braking ability of two hundred and fifteen thousand pounds. It could stop a landing jet one hundred and twenty-five times between replacements. Wire
